First Day in London!

Well! After being grounded at the Duluth International Airport for over an hour due to bad flying conditions yesterday, the anticipation to actually reach London grew and grew. My name is Jamie and I'm an English Major at CSS. I will be a junior with senior credit standing in the fall, and I recently discovered that I do not enjoy flying. While preparing for the trip, I kept worrying about getting to the airport and getting through security on time, so I never really thought about the flight itself until we were taking off into the air. Then the motion sickness hit! And boy, did it hit hard. Needless to say, the last 24 hours were exhausting due to nausea from flying as well as not being able to sleep during the long flight. Nonetheless, landing in London and actually walking through the streets seemed like it was too good to be true, so much so that I still have a hard time believing I'm actually here. So, today's adventures were exhausting but exciting, because they signaled the coming weeks of fun activities and events. Today, we got picked up from the airport by our CIS tour guide Jed. I found out that he's originally from Melbourne, but has lived in England for several years now and is excited to show us around the town he's come to love. The bus ride to the Hostel was really cool as well, we got to see a lot of classic British architecture and even fully experience the chaos that is British driving. I don't think I'd be able to drive with the aggression and confidence that I've seen many London drivers embody within this first day alone. To put it simply, they're some of the craziest drivers I've ever seen. Then, once we reached the Generator Hostel, we got to check out our rooms. My 5 roommates and I are staying in the 0 level floor, which is themed "Wonderland," and has fun pictures of various creatures drawn on the wall, as well as quotes that make one think of Alice in Wonderland. Though all these wonderful experiences have been great, the one that takes the cake was the welcome dinner at a pub down the road from the hostel. While taking in the British pub experience, I tried a very British sounding meal of "sausage and mash," which consisted of 3 free-range cherry orchard sausages in a beer mustard mash (mashed potatoes) with red wine gravy and sprouts on top. It was interesting and delicious at the same time, and I'm not sure whether or not I liked it. It was strange! However, I'm excited to try more British foods in the next few weeks!

I can't wait to further explore the city and find all of its hidden treasures. I even already found some old red telephone booths: 

So who knows what the next few weeks will bring! I'm looking forward to the adventures, especially now that I have a chance to catch up on all the sleep I didn't get on the flight here. See you later, Internet!